The ability to switch out watch faces on an Apple Watch was originally taken out of the watchOS 10 upgrade, but it has now been brought back in the third watchOS 10.2 beta that Apple released this week.
By turning on the feature in the Apple Watch Settings app, users can now opt to use a swipe gesture to change the active Apple Watch face. When the feature is activated, swiping left or right on the watch face navigates through the preset watch faces.
In watchOS 9, swapping watch faces was done by default with a swipe gesture. However, Apple changed this interaction in response to feedback indicating that it was too simple to switch watch faces unintentionally. The current gesture to switch the watch face that is currently active requires long pressing before swiping.
Owners of Apple Watches who liked the previous method of changing their watch faces can opt to enable the setting if they so want with watchOS 10.2. In the third beta, the setting is located under Settings > Clock. Developers and public beta testers can currently access watchOS 10.2, which is anticipated to be released to the general public in December.
